WEDNESDAY, Aug. 31, 2005 (HealthDayNews) -- As the toxic backwash of Hurricane Katrina continued to swallow up New Orleans and surrounding areas, federal officials declared a public health emergency for the entire Gulf Coast Wednesday.
Relief efforts took on an even-greater urgency with the mandated evacuation of flood-ravaged New Orleans, as massive rescue operations mounted along a path of devastation spread across four states.
There were these new developments, according to news reports:
In the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, the massive flooding could turn the affected areas into a breeding ground for a variety of serious health problems, hurricane experts had predicted on Tuesday.
"Nobody should come back to New Orleans for a week," said Ivor van Heerden, the director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center in Baton Rouge. "They wouldn't be able to get to their homes. There's no food, there's no water, and anybody coming home would be entering a wilderness."
Among the potential health problems left in the wake of the hurricane's landfall Monday are intestinal diseases from contaminated drinking water and sewage overflow.
"We know New Orleans is having problems with its drinking water supply," van Heerden said. "They've lost pressure. That means it is not a contained system."
And because the city lies below sea level and depends on a network of pumps, canals and levees, some of which have already failed, there is also the potential that untreated sewage has gotten into the water system, van Heerden added.
"They are trying right now to get the drainage pumps operational," he said. "They have to repair some of the pumps and pump stations.
There is also the possibility that chemicals have polluted the water system. "We are not sure right now what chemicals are there," van Heerden said. "We have had reports of gasoline smells in some areas."
In addition, floating debris, which can block the drainage canals and foul pumps, is going to make reducing the flooding very difficult, van Heerden added.
"New Orleans looks like a war zone, so there's debris everywhere," he said.
There is also the potential risk of an increase in West Nile infections throught the hardest-hit areas, which stretch east through Biloxi and the Gulfport areas in Mississippi to Alabama and the panhandle of Florida, van Heerden said.
"Very shortly, we will see a fairly dramatic increase in the number of mosquitoes," he said. "We are at the heart of our West Nile fever season, so there could well be a dramatic increase in the infection rate."
An increase in exposure rabies is also a potential threat left by the storm.
"A lot of wildlife is infected, especially raccoons. They, like humans, have been displaced from their homes, and are looking for shelter, and there is the potential of humans or their pets being bitten by these rabies infected animals," van Heerden said.
van Heerden also noted that there have been reports of natural gas leaks, and there is also the potential of leaks from chemical plants and pipelines.
In addition to these problems, van Heerden said that there will be an increase in trauma-related injuries. "For example, people falling off ladders, electrocuting themselves and those who get hurt scrambling around their homes, all that increases the potential of tetanus."
By Wednesday midday, as rescue efforts continued, estimates of the fatalities still remained speculative, but were expected to be in the hundreds.
More information
Experts at the University of Iowa can tell you more about health risks from flooding.